This is how a nation’s spirit is broken
By Richard Robbins
A nation that lies to itself about itself is in its essentials untrustworthy; divorced from factual reality, it is a nation doomed to self-deceit and self-dealing, such as to render it inoperable.
We are on the precipice of becoming such a nation. The significance of President Trump’s dismissal of the non-partisan director of labor statistics because he didn’t like the latest unemployment numbers suggests a plunge into bad behavior so thorough that it casts a darkening shadow over the entirety of the federal government and of civil society, to say nothing of the economy and business community.
Sadly, to appropriate a phrase from Donald Trump’s favorite sport, this particular gambit with unreality is par for the course, as far as the president is concerned.
On CNBC recently, the president stated that as a result of the administration’s tariff deal with the European Union, the Europeans handed over a cash payment to the United States of $600 billion “to invest in anything I want. There are no details…. I can do anything I want with it.”
As summarized by Ron Filipowski, “This is a complete fantasy. Just an absurd made up lie. The European Union is not giving Trump ‘$600 billion to invest in anything I want.’ They aren’t giving him one dollar to invest.
“It’s just astonishing that a president can go on a financial network and lie like this, and it barely registers.”
President Trump justifies the attempt by Texas Republicans to redraw Congressional districts to safeguard the GOP majority in the House of Representatives by declaring, “I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know. And we are entitled to five more seats.”
Granted, the president ran away with the 2024 presidential vote in Texas. Trump’s raw vote numbers did set a Texas record, which is not entirely unsurprising, since the state’s population continues to grow.
Donald Trump’s margin of victory over Kamala Harris came to 14%. This is far from record territory, however – very far. George W. Bush beat John Kerry in Texas by 23 points in 2004. Lyndon Johnson beat Barry Goldwater by 27 points in 1964. Richard Nixon beat George McGovern by 33 points in 1972. Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale by 36 points in 1984. The grand champ is Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, who beat his Republican opponent by 75 points in 1936.
After none of these elections did Texas undergo a problematic mid-decade re-gerrymandering. Today, that’s just what’s happening, and the consequences, for the integrity of elections and the health of democracy nationwide, are simply awful.
The Smithsonian felt the sting of Trump’s self-dealing when, under White House pressure, it altered an exhibit on presidential impeachments. As every American should know, Andrew Johnson came close to being tossed from office in 1868. Ditto, Richard Nixon in 1974 and Bill Clinton in 1998.
Donald Trump was actually impeached on two occasions and faced trial twice in the Senate. Yet, a clueless visitor to the Smithsonian’s exhibit detailing presidential scandals at the Museum of National History would never know this fact – this truer than true historical fact. Holy cow, we lived it.
After museum officials scrubbed the exhibit of any mention of Trump, the long-time politico and pundit Jeff Greenfield wrote on X, “Orwellian is a much overused phrase: but forcing the Smithsonian to erase the fact of Trump’s impeachments is right out of ‘1984.’ Did they drop the stuff down the memory hole?”
Donald Trump spent a considerable amount of time prior to the White House trying to convince people of falsehoods. There was the Trump Tower floor gambit. The net wealth gambit. The pseudonym John Barron gambit.
Trumpian behavior seems instinctive to Trump, but for others it’s learned, and that’s the broader political and societal problem. Take mild-mannered John Cronyn, the Texas senator in a tough re-election bid against state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Normally level-headed, Cornyn has called on federal law enforcement to join in the hunt for Democratic state lawmakers who have temporarily abandoned Austin in an attempt to stop the GOP redistricting plan.
Without Trump first clearing the brush with his initial falsehood, it is doubtful that the moderate Cronyn would have been placed in a position where he felt the need to act so outrageously against type.
Trump can make a fraud of just about anyone, and that’s a big problem.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.